1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to resilient centering spring supports for resiliently maintaining panel mounted connectors in a central position with respect to a cutout in the panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common to find in the telecommunications industry, connectors having a large plurality of cables connected thereto, mounted to panels and matable with complementary connectors mounted on printed circuit boards. The panel may be a backpanel within a cabinet-like structure, the printed circuit boards being disposed perpendicularly thereto, whereby the connectors are blindly coupled by sliding the printed circuit boards into the cabinet until the connectors are mated. This means that the connectors must be precisely positioned with respect to each other. Construction of the backpanel and cabinet, sliding movement of the printed circuit board, and mounting of the connectors thereon all adds to the inaccuracy in the relative positioning of the mating connectors which therefore means that the mating connectors must enable coupling with a relatively large tolerance in the relative positioning. By floatably mounting the backpanel connectors within cutouts of the backpanel one could account for the tolerances required, but a further problem emanates from the connectors' heavy loading due to the mass of conducting wires connected thereto, thereby pulling the connector downwards. The connector would therefore be in a non-central position with respect to the panel cutout and subsequently with respect to the mating connector, thereby making coupling therebetween impossible or giving rise to excessive load on the connectors.
Connectors having resilient centering means and which are mounted to panels or similar structures, are known in U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,129 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,984. Both of these connectors have centering means which comprise resilient arms integrally moulded with the connector housing and attached at their free ends to the structure or panel, the connector body thus being able to resiliently bias with respect to the panel or structure. Such a connector is however not well adapted to the connectors mentioned above used in the telecommunications industry, because on one hand, of insufficient spring force of the integral plastic arms for connectors having such a large number of terminals, and on the other hand plastic material with high resiliency may not correspond to the material best suited for producing such connectors. A further disadvantage of the latter, is the requirement to replace the whole connector should the support arms break.